Sacramental Promise of Being Filled With the Spirit
8 And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of amy body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.
9 Now, when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard.
... to his soul.
... shall never hunger or thirst, his soul, that is.
This is the promise of the Sacrament. As we partake of it, worthily and thoughtfully we will never hunger or thirst. That fulfillment comes through the Holy Ghost. We can always have Him with us.
In the book 'The Highest In Us' by Truman G. Madsen he says:
It is interesting to me that the word ordinance has the same root as ordained and order. Those connotations are appropriate. But it also has the same root as ordinary. That , too, is relevant. An ordinance takes the most ordinary of elements (for what is more commonplace than water, bread, olive oil? - kneeling, clasping hands, lifting of arms are ordinary things) and gives them or receives them or consecrates them as holy, as somehow focusing our mortal up reach and an immortal response. Ordinances make possible the transformation of the ordinary. Our ordinary work ordinary breathing and speaking, ordinary pleasures, become extraordinary when they are consciously sacramental.
I wish we had another word for the blending of thought and feeling that takes place in an ordinance, a word perhaps like compre-fee. In modern thought , brain and heart are separated and often detached from the subtler aspirations of the spirit... But in ordinances, a symphonic combination of all aspects of the self occurs.
I love General Conference. But I feel like something is missing when I don't get to go to church and partake of the sacrament those couple of times a year.
This is the purpose of this meeting...
... and I know I'm guilty of minimizing this sacred ordinance.
Is there more I can do? Are the promises felt more deeply or greater for me if I make more of this ordinance?
How about you?
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